It's Personal Stories, A Hospitality Podcast

Talene Staab, Brand Leader, Home2 Suites by Hilton interviewed by Rachel Humphrey

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Talene shares her path to leadership and why her lateral moves were not only necessary but also had the greatest impact on her trajectory, as well as how she adapts to leading a team she previously served alongside.  Talene also discusses how important it is to be uncomfortable, how she tackles risks and challenges, and why being able to laugh has helped her manage the stresses of career and home. Talene further shares the importance of public speaking skills and why the hospitality industry is the ideal industry to find mentors, advocates, and champions.

Rachel Humphrey:

Good afternoon. I am Rachel Humphrey with d e I advisors, and today I am delighted to be joined by Tine Staub with Hilton Tine. Welcome.

Talene Staab:

Thanks for having me. Absolutely.

Rachel Humphrey:

We're gonna jump right in. We're gonna spend about 30 minutes together talking a little bit about your path to leadership and some of the great lessons that you've learned along the way. And so because we are short on time, we are gonna get started right away. Okay? But one of the things that I love about the hospitality industry is how incredibly unique everybody's path to leadership is. While you and I. may have ended in similar places or ended up in similar places. Our paths there were very different. So tell us a little bit about your path to where you are today.

Talene Staab:

Sure. I started out going to school for hotel and restaurant administration. It was a compromise because my parents really wanted me to have a business degree, which sounded dreadfully boring in this kind of check the box and sounded a lot more fun. So I did that. But along the way through college and even in high school, I had always been working in hotels and re. So after graduation I was working on property doing sales. I was a Smurf sales manager booking the soccer teams and the weddings, which we are so thankful for in today's world. And then got promoted to D Os. I really liked the number side of it, and after a while I got my first job with corporate Hilton. Early on. So I've been with Hilton kind of my whole life, when I was a regional director in the Southwest, so living in San Diego, working from home, I covered a great territory, loved it. And I loved working for the Mc Suites brand, but I was digging some pretty deep tracks and I didn't know what to do next. And so when Hilton announced they were moving headquarters to McClean I one of the biggest risks because my husband really pushed it to move cross country to Virginia with our four and two year old and just see what was the new structure gonna be at Hilton. Everyone's jobs were being mixed up and we were creating really a whole new corporate headquarters. Did jobs completely outta my wheelhouse. Product innovation. I got into brand launching with Canopy as a senior director, really building the brand from the ground up and trying to pitch it to owner. So I learned a ton about development and the owner side of the business and really early days of branding. From there moved into owner experience, which was really about how does the owner. Experience feel like from Hilton across whatever type of owner you may be, large or small or what have you. So that was a huge learning curve for me. And then got back into branding with getting to lead True for a few years, which was super fun. In the early days, they're still early days, and then most recently now with home too. So a lot of lateral moves but always close to the business that I. That's

Rachel Humphrey:

amazing. And one of the things that we actually hear from a lot of leaders is this ability to absorb. Areas outside of your own, within the company. So the more knowledge you have about different types of the business, the more people are looking to you to advance that leadership. And you have, as you mentioned, really relied on some pretty important lateral moves in advancing your career. I know you feel that has been one of the driving. Be behind your path to leadership. Talk about those lateral moves and why you think those were so important for you, and might be for others who maybe think that if you're not steadily ascending as others think that you might be sure that it isn't as

Talene Staab:

successful. Yeah, and I think for my generation, the early career advice was it was very much a corporate ladder and you always moved up and if you stay loyal to one company or one kind of entity, good things would come, just work hard. But things change and I was being known as. Person who does this. And it was hard to, in a more matrixed environment to get consideration from other departments or other teams or other brands even. And so I needed that first jump lateral to show I was capable of more. And it's one of those things too, I think it's important for succession planning too. If you're considered too indispensable in the role that you're in, it's hard for people. that comes into the play of ugh, if she leaves and who's gonna do it? And so you almost wanna show that you're flexible and you can do lots of things, not just what you became noticed for. So getting a different audience that you're working with, getting new leadership that you're working with, getting new teams that you're getting experience with, but you have to think of it as additive and building out the breadth of your experience. But then what's cool about it, as I think back on it now, it's like you have your own style of doing your work and how you work with people and how you work with teams, or how you lead people that stays with you. But you can apply it to different parts of the business and kind of gain that experience and then it ends up being like a snowball and then you're. Put yourself out there to be more considered for different roles and different experiences, and that kind of keeps building. So I felt like I was super deep tracks for a long time kind of feeling like, ah, I don't know what to do once I branched out laterally. Honestly, things completely changed for me there, but it was hard to make that first move probably because of my own hesitation to make it

Rachel Humphrey:

That's an. though I never really thought about also the perception of others. If they're worried about backfilling or succession planning, you then that hesitation to remove you from a role that you're excelling at makes sense. I just never thought about it that way, so that's really great advice. Yeah. One of the other things that you have spoken some about is that as you go from being. Let's say a part of the working team into a position of management or into a position of leadership. There's a big adjustment sometimes that has to be made, both in terms of perception and in how you work and supervise others. Can you talk a little bit about advice you might have for some who are, may get promoted or may get a different role in leadership among their team, and then how to function with that team moving forward?

Talene Staab:

Yes. It's a paradox almost. if you do a really good job and you're getting noticed for what you do then, sometimes you're building your own teams or you're kind, becoming a supervisor of people that did the job you used to do, so you can lean on your own experience to say, oh, maybe try this way, or you have that experience to lean on, but it's hard when you move up through the ranks where you're. Required to do the work, and in fact, you're probably a hindrance if you're telling people how to do the work. It'll be considered like a micromanager, so to feel like you're being plucked out of. what you did that made you successful and that safety net is gone and now you just have to lead. You can't get your hands dirty and get in the mix and execute. Is a really tough move because that might have been what made you successful up to that point. It happened with me when I went into that owner experience role because the team that I inherited was really talented and really good at what they did, and I had really no. What they, how they were able to do what they did on a daily basis. But my job was to recast the vision and get us to the next destination, which I could do. I just couldn't tell them how to do their day-to-day job. So we really relied on each other, but it was, honestly, I felt like I, my hands were tied behind my back because I was only focused on that. Strategic level and not the execution. And I've seen other people as they've gotten promoted, have they, their sa their comfort zone is to go back and get involved and do the stuff. And that's probably the worst thing for for everybody. So to really believe like your job is to paint the vision and get everyone to the destination and let them do the work to get.

Rachel Humphrey:

That's such great advice. I had a leader tell me in one of the interviews a few weeks ago that the best advice she ever got from her executive coach was called Unpacking your backpack. She's every time you go from one job to the next, you take with you everything that you were already doing. Cause you're afraid to let it go. I love that. And she's like, when you get to that leadership level, you have to be able to. Take everything out of the backpack and give it to the person who's actually supposed to be doing Yeah. The work. So I thought that was a great way of thinking about it. Yep. One of the things we hear a lot, and it's a generalization, but is that women are not good at advocating for ourselves. And you have been an exceptional advocate. For other women in the industry. Talk a little bit about how you think that maybe some people who are struggling with that to speak up, whether it is for roles or salaries or jobs that they want, or even opportunities to work on projects. What are some of the strategies that you share with others on how to best advocate for what you want?

Talene Staab:

Yes. something I've experienced firsthand, I tell this story all the time, is that particularly with women feel like they have to have a 90% mastery of something to consider themselves qualified, whereas others, might have a threshold of 50%. And what that, how that translates in the real world is women might not check all the boxes on an application and then filter themselves out, which is what happened in, in my case, I had written a job description with a particular person in mind and super qualified. And she failed the screen because there was the throwaway question at the bottom that says, are expert? Excel, and she's I'm proficient, I'm not expert. And she didn't check the box and kind of got filtered out. And when I called HR about that, they said, oh, you have no idea. This happens every day. And so every chance I get to say it, it's a small little thing, but that's keeping us from being able to advocate for ourselves, anyone. So have more faith in your knowledge of the skills. And don't underestimate yourself, cuz you're gonna be the first. First in your advocacy. The second is, people are sometimes shy about asking to network or mentor or have coffee or any of that, and that networking is super important just because, we even just talked about it today as we're talking about succession planning in our company. you don't know the people who are interested in coming into your world and you wished you knew. And sometimes you meet these people by accident or through different organizations. And if it helps everyone if you advocate for yourself and say, Hey, I'm interested in a career this way, or in joining this team. Because a lot of that matchmaking doesn't happen naturally and the. that are hiring sometimes are looking for those people. So there it is just simple little things. It doesn't mean you have to raise this big flag and advocate for yourself, whatever that means. It just means like being intentional about what your path is or what your interests are and just having some of those simple conversations is what, what's needed. Especially in today's world, when we're so zoomed and teams oriented, you have to make an effort to make. Connections happen because if not everyone's in the office every day, you are not gonna naturally just run into each other at the copy machine or what have you. So you have to just intentionally reach out and have those conversations with people. That's advocacy.

Rachel Humphrey:

No. And I like the way that, that's maybe a non-traditional way of thinking about it, but certainly the intentionality is so important, and that's such great advice. And you talk about just there, when you are interested in an opportunity, and maybe let's say this time you actually don't check all the boxes. You go through and you say, okay, if I'm being honest, this is, I'm not ready for this role because I don't have this skillset. You are someone and I always love to share. Why I've invited certain guests. You are someone who loves to learn and you love to share, and I love that you and I will connect sometime at conferences just to talk, just to say what's going on. What are you hearing for the women in hospitality leaders belong to become a great advisor for me, in terms of just sitting and learning and sharing what we're hearing talk about for those who are finding maybe ways that they do need to continue to grow that skillset, whether it's business acumen or whether. Soft skills. What do you recommend? How do people search out ways of doing that? Is it through, there's so many opportunities now through associations and education and a lot of free stuff during Covid. What are some of the ways that you recommend to people to help continue to grow that professional and personal

Talene Staab:

development? Yes, there is, I look at it at two tracks. So from the business side of it, taking advantage of all of that, the training, think. areas of the business where you're familiar enough, but maybe you just wanna get deeper knowledge. So like I've taken, Ecor classes or tons of, learnings online for things that I feel like I'll use on my day-to-day. And I think. for, and I'll speak to women again, that a lot of the mentoring that happens can sometimes just be of the soft skills, which are super important, but not as important as actually learning the business. So I love when people ask, okay, how do you measure things? That's always like the a first place I'll go to, to learn. Cause I wanna understand the audience, how are they measuring success so that when we're having a conversation, we're looking at the. yardstick I guess. And that's one way that I've learned cuz when I'll talk to owners and some look at, from a development perspective, they look at cost per square foot, cost per key, cost per revenue generating. So like in the way different groups read their PNLs, like just understanding how other people. look at the same business totally differently. That's probably been one of the biggest ways I've learned from others. And it also with that helps you have conversations with bigger audience. Of people. And then you're, you continue to learn. And you mentioned, sometimes you and I will just sit and talk, I feel like, cuz we see. It's a big elephant, right? You're, you might be working on the ears and I'm working on the tail but we've had a view from very different perspectives of the business and that's been one of my favorite ways to learn and get a broader view and to meet people. And that's certainly helped a ton cuz you can do so much in, in your day-to-day world. But when you meet people that are adjacent that's where I feel like real growth and opportunity. Happen.

Rachel Humphrey:

I think in this industry too, you just never hear about people turning down requests to help them. So whether it's, Hey, can you teach me a little bit more about what you do? Or, I remember when I first started, I was like, what are all these acronyms? Like people? And it took me a long time because I didn't, I was so insecure. I didn't want people to think I wasn't. Smart and I was like, I dunno what any of those letters stand for. And finally you realize that people want to share that they wanna share what they know with you, whether they're in your company or outside of your company. So finding people who can help you gain that knowledge, especially on the business side is can be really exciting, but also rewarding for the people. That are sharing it back. I've loved being able to do that and I know that you have as well.

Talene Staab:

I've yet to meet someone that was like, bummed out about mentoring, like that didn't get something as much out of it as the mentee. But the other thing I have to say, a plug for the hospitality industry is we're in the hospitality industry, like the friendliness, nicest most, giving generous people in the world. If you're not taking advantage of just that in its own, like it's a huge missed opportunity. It's so easy for us. Can you imagine if you're in a different

Rachel Humphrey:

industry, trying to No, I could not agree

Talene Staab:

more. That's so true, Yeah.

Rachel Humphrey:

One of the areas that a lot of people express wanting to do some professional development or think might be holding them back is the area of public speaking. And that can be speaking to a. Speaking at a team meeting, it can of course, like you do, speaking at conferences or something like we're doing today. Are you comfortable public speaking? Do you intentionally work on growing that skill? How important do you think it's been in your career? The ability to really communicate effectively in that manner?

Talene Staab:

Oh, it's super important. It's super scary. It's always nerve-wracking. I try to always say yes because I know that's an automatic growth opportunity. And when it's over, I live, check the box and say, woo, I'm glad I did it. but it's forced fun. But I have never regretted'em. Some have been a disaster, but those have been as valuable to me as the ones that have gone really well. So I say, there's a reason. It's one of the most scary things in the world for people, but that's another reason why I love to just. Say yes and encourage other people to say yes as much as possible and you kinda get a rhythm. For me, I like to really understand who the audience is. And figure out how, what's my connection point to them, whether it's a big audience, whether it's a small group, but get to know who are you speaking to and why the heck did they ask you to speak to them? Yeah. And then try to serve to that and then get the points that you wanna say. And then for me, I just practice it, and I notice that after the way I've written the script, I keep saying things. The way I would naturally say'em is if I was telling the story to my husband over the dinner table or to colleagues, and then LA ends up being in the script because it's how I would normally. Say it. And then by doing that a few times, you know the content and then when it's time to speak, it really sounds like you are having a conversation and connecting with the audience. Because I feel the content of course is important, but the connection with the audience is what makes it stick. And so I really try to find. that angle, which sometimes is pretty fun depending on if you get invited to a wide range. And sometimes it's a disaster. And I've got some funny stories about that. But again, you learn from those as well. You do, you got to do that again, or I would've done that differently. But those are important and you gotta just get used to that feeling of getting scared and then the thrill of it, and then being so happy when it. that

Rachel Humphrey:

segues perfectly. I was gonna bring up taking risks as it related to your moves, certainly from San Diego to Virginia, but also when you talk about public speaking talk about the process you go through when it comes time to taking risks. Do you have an evaluation process? Do you go with your gut? Are you a data person? Like, how do you determine which risks you're gonna proceed on and which you're gonna

Talene Staab:

pass on? Yeah. If you've ever done the colors, like red is social and yellow is creative. green is process and blue is data. I had no idea. I was very blue I thought I was much more gut, which I am still, but to me, like when it's really tricky, I will fall on the data. My husband's an electric, a systems engineer, and. When we moved, I had a spreadsheet like weighted by importance of like where we were gonna live, who was gonna take care of the kids And he was like, I had no idea that you even thought like this, cuz I was, that was probably the most stressful. So that was like my foundation. And then the rest of it was like by feel. So to me that's I'll look at logically like what are we actually dealing with? And I found like with risks, there's a lot of perceived risk. There's a lot of just. scared, obviously. Again, I rely on a lot of different people to weigh in and say, from your point of view, pros and cons, how risky is the risk? What is the risk? Is it just cuz we're gonna feel bad for a little bit, but in the long term it's really the right thing for the business. I'll take in a lot of information and then look at the whole piece of it. And usually, so far I feel like once you've done enough, without taking too long, cause nobody. Taking too long to make decisions you have a good, solid feeling of the direction to go and you can always kind of pivot, make it 85% baked and then work out the rest. And it's, so far it's worked out. I love that.

Rachel Humphrey:

You've had many things to celebrate in your career, tremendous accolades, including recently from Hotel Management Magazine, but that doesn't mean that your career has been without obstacles that you've had to overcome. Talk about how you take those obstacles and turn them either into learning opportunities. To make you stronger, to make you more successful. How do you tackle obstacles? Is it the same way as risks or is there a different process for you?

Talene Staab:

One obstacle that comes to mind is I was, it was about career growth actually. And I was in a senior director role and the VP that I reported, Was vacant and I really wanted to go for that role and apply for that. And the senior VP invited me into the office. HR was there, which is never a good thing, And they said, we encourage you to apply for the role. You have a good shot. However, we're gonna make some changes to the org. In the current position, you're. Is likely to be eliminated. We wanna flatten out the organization, so good luck. But if you don't get it, isn't gonna be there. Wow. Okay. And then the only time I had was that was a Friday and I had till Monday to. Interview for it. So that weekend was my prep time and I told my husband like, take care of the kids. Send me some food under the door. You gotta leave me alone. I gotta figure this out. And it made me take stock of who I was, how did I do my job, how did I work with others, what have I done to, improve the company in. stuff like I, it, it forced me to know my story and know what I'm about and know how I do things and really know it in a very short amount of time. So then when I interviewed for it, I felt okay, I can tell my story and it's all out there. And I did not get the job. But the SVP said, look of. People that I spoke to, they came in with a long list of projects and experiences, but yours was the one that helped me understand who you are and how you roll. And therefore let's carve out this kind of a thing for you to stay on the team. And I think that you'll be great at this. So I guess the, sometimes that's an example of an obstacle where it was. So much pressure that it forced me to do something that I can now keep for the rest of my life. Like that. Yeah. It was forged in fire and emergency but it helped me to really understand me, so that going into situations I'm really clear about okay, this is how I do it so that's clear and then I can work with other people and we figure it out and that stuff now travels with me, right? Wherever I go. And gives you a foundation to work off of. No matter what situation you're in, you know your strengths, your weaknesses, where you lean on others. It, that's super important I think, is to understand how you tick.

Rachel Humphrey:

I love too that something that you did for a particular purpose is now ingrained in who you are and how you present yourself, and that relates a lot to why I love so much. The question always about advice that you would give to your younger self, because I think that as we grow, we reflect a lot and we say, what have we learned over the course of our careers? And it may change over time. but what would you tell your 21 year old self who didn't go to business school but found something much more exciting in, in the hospitality industry? What would you tell yourself now that you wish you had known then?

Talene Staab:

I would tell myself to maybe take some of those risks earlier. I was pretty happy. Listen, I was working at home in San Diego, like what wasn't to love. I wanted to stay there forever. So I might have told myself to seek out some new, uncomfortable things a little sooner. I started doing that pretty much later in my career. I wish that I would've started that earlier. Cuz then I, I felt like that acceleration might have happened earlier, or I would've met a lot more people in opportunities a lot earlier. I don't re regret it the way it all worked out, but I feel like I, I was happy to be in my space and comfortable and mastering it. For probably a little too long, I would've sought out some more change a little bit sooner. It's

Rachel Humphrey:

incredible how many leaders we've spoken to that talk about learning to be uncomfortable. I think that's a, maybe a phrase. Was not as familiar to me before, but it's so powerful like that safety or comfort is something we all seek from so many assets aspects of our lives. Yeah. And then to think that your greatest successes might come from actually being uncomfortable is such a. A great lesson for people you have and we're gonna run short on time as I knew that we would. Cuz just like when we sit down at conferences, we can

Talene Staab:

talk forever.

Rachel Humphrey:

You've mentioned your husband, your children, your career, very demanding. I see you obviously many of the places that I used to be as well and certainly none of us. Is an expert at balancing the demands of a personal life and a career, but what strategies do you implement? Any secret weapons that you've used that you think have helped you be more successful in that area?

Talene Staab:

it's funny that you asked us. We had this, I had, I heard the greatest analogy just this morning. A woman was talking about her mom who's got, Raised four kids and she was calling her for advice and she said, you know what? Life is like having a tablecloth. You're trying to straighten it out, and sometimes it's gonna pull this way and that end's gonna be short, and sometimes you're gonna pull it this way and it's never gonna properly always. Perfectly cover the table. And that's what it's about. So sometimes you know, the top corner's gonna be exposed. I feel you just gotta be comfortable with that. I'm incredible Yeah, it was like, oh my gosh, we've been talking about this forever, but I could so clearly see it. And I'm like, some days I'm gonna be a great wife. Some days I'm gonna be a great business person. Some days I'm gonna be a great mom and a great friend. I don, they're all gonna happen at the same time. on the same day or the week or whatever. And you just gotta, you just gotta be comfortable with that and just know you know what? You're gonna have these ups and downs, but in the main, keep yourself sane to carry yourself. It's part of the fun of it all is we were just laughing about, there's a picture of me trying to, cuz right now it's, Near the holidays and then a flashback memory came up of my kids. She sent it to me. It was a memory that came up on her photos and it's a picture of me storming out of the room, like you just see my back in a huff and she's posing. Cause I was so mad at them taking Christmas pictures, and they were horrible. People and, and then they ended up taking the most beautiful photo shoot without me It's that's it. That's the greatest part of it. And you just have to have a good sense of humor about it and just realize we're all just trying to get through the day. And sometimes there's some really awesome things that come outta that. That's

Rachel Humphrey:

great. And I love having a good sense of humor about it too, because you just can't take everything too seriously. Tell us one thing. You've offered so many incredible nuggets of wisdom and the lessons that you've learned along the way. Do you have one more thing that you would wanna share with our listeners? Something that, either a piece of advice that you wish you had received or something that maybe you like sharing that we haven't

Talene Staab:

talked about. I would just maybe go back to what I said earlier about know your story. I've talked to so many people, trying to find the next step in their careers or trying to, figure out how do they get these. These roles. And I always say it's not whether you're good or bad. It's like you are a unique puzzle piece, right? Your shape is very special, and if that puzzle piece is gonna fit in the next role, then that's great, but if it didn't, it doesn't mean there's anything wrong. It's just, it just didn't fit. So really understand. puzzle piece. What are you, so you can speak to it and you can communicate and you can advocate for yourself, cuz you'll be super clear and people who are working for you or working beside you will know what they're dealing with. It's just it's a, it might feel like an indulgence, but it's something that's gonna go, with you and help you every step of the way.

Rachel Humphrey:

I love that so much. Telene, thank you on behalf of myself because you have been a huge advocate for me and someone that inspires me on a regular basis and on behalf of an industry that you give so much to. Thank you for sharing your insights with the d e I advisors audience, and also for all you do for the industry. But thank you for joining us.

Talene Staab:

Thank you and thank you for the invitation and same to you. I love talking to you and your knowledge and thank you for everything you're doing with D e I advisors. I think it's wonderful work.

Rachel Humphrey:

Thank you, Tony.